Runners get down and dirty for a thrill in extreme races
By Mary Brophy Marcus, USA TODAY
By Jack Gruber, USA TODAY
Cary Petrovich, 39, of Lorton, Va., hits the mud and low crawl section in the Run Amuck event on Aug. 14. He finished in 42:29.
No leisurely Saturday morning jog down tree-lined neighborhood streets for Joe Pennella. His idea of a satisfying morning run includes slogging through a mud pit, leaping over bales of hay and getting barked at by a U.S. Marine.
A couple of weeks ago, Pennella ran Run Amuck at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia — a 31/2-mile running race nothing like your neighborhood 5K fundraiser, he says.
"The race was ridiculously fun," he says.
"First, they hit you with a ladder hose from a Quantico Fire Department truck. Then on the first hill, a Marine makes you stop and do 10 jumping jacks and he makes you count — he had a bullhorn. Then you had to jump over bales of hay and run through a mud pit. And that's all in the first mile," says Pennella, 40, of his fourth mud run in the past three years.
Pennella is among a growing number of runners craving runs more offbeat or extreme than the typical weekend footrace, says Runner's World running expert and writer Bart Yasso, a longtime distance runner who spends almost every weekend at a race. He spent the weekend of Aug. 21 in Colorado.
"People are looking for the next challenge," he says. "I just saw Pike's Peak. They do a half-marathon distance ascent Saturday — 2,000 people run to the top of the mountain — and on Sunday the marathon is run, up and down."
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